A note on Develop has further indications that Battlefield 3 will not be released through Steam, as speculation mounts that DICE's military shooter sequel will not appear on Valve's download service. They quote a comment from a report from financial research firm Baird based on a meeting with GameStop: "The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam," Baird says GameStop executives told them. "Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative." Thanks Computer and Video Games.

PHJF wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 11:44:Steam is and will always be the only service I use, but I still only use it for games $15 or less.

I was having problems with my internet the other day (turned out to be my less-than-year-old router) and wanted to play a game offline. But the geniuses at Valve, in their infinite wisdom, require that you enter offline mode while being online, so I was locked out of all my games. Why the fuck would I ever pay full price for service like that?

Not saying that this didn't happen to you, but that's not how it works for me. If my internet isn't working, Steam usually spends 3 minutes trying to update, times out, then spends 3 minutes trying to figure out if I have internet access. (And I guess it's not "interesting" enough for the code monkeys at Valve to switch this process around. Dipshits.)

Once it realizes you have no internet access, it pops up a box that says "Hey, you don't have internet access! Do you want me to try again, or go into offline mode?"